“I’m sitting on the couch enjoying Super Bowl Sunday,” said Wood, describing the feeling. “That ad suddenly came on and I almost couldn’t believe what I was watching.”

The ad, which Jeep called "Anti-Manifesto," came with a tiny disclaimer stating it was shot in a manmade water feature.

But Wood said it’s damaging nonetheless because many of the more than 103 million people who watched the game likely didn't see the disclaimer. What they saw was a template for off-highway driving that’s bad news for fish, wildlife and people who enjoy streams and rivers, he said.

“They effectively reamed the stream and glorified it.”

Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited

“They drove right up the middle of the stream, they effectively reamed the stream and glorified it,” Wood said. “It is about the worst thing you can do to a stream.”

The RGJ requested a comment from a Jeep representative through the media website of Jeep parent company Fiat Chrysler and did not immediately receive a response.

The version of the ad Jeep posted on YouTube has an additional disclaimer attached: “This video was filmed on a man-made lake and man-made waterfall. The video was filmed on private land in the Southwest and the water does not flow to another natural body of water. The waterfall was also man-made for purposes of filming.”

Another Jeep ad titled "The Road," which also ran during the Super Bowl, featured a Jeep driving through what appeared to be a riparian area. It didn't show a disclaimer during the water crossing portion of the ad.

Wood acknowledges that for many outdoors people, making a stream crossing in a vehicle is often necessary.

But the proper way to cross, Wood said, is to use an existing crossing, preferably one that’s hardened for vehicles, and minimize the time and distance the vehicle is actually in the stream.

Driving up or down within a streambed is damaging on several levels. It disturbs sediment, disrupts places where fish and amphibians breed and lay eggs, and can crush small fish, amphibians and reptiles.

Pam Harrington, Trout Unlimited field coordinator for Nevada, said she had feelings similar to Wood's when she saw the ad, especially because she’s spent time working with ATV clubs in Southern Idaho repairing damage done by irresponsible drivers.

“When you have to get across keep it to a minimum,” Harrington said. “Just turning and driving down a stream bed is terrible.”

Although Wood found the ad to be irresponsible and possible damaging, he didn’t just turn off the television.

He wrote a letter Sergio Marchionne, chairman and CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, parent company of Jeep.

“I used to own a CJ7, and took that truck all over the hills of Vermont,” Wood wrote. “What I never did was drive up the center of stream.”

Wood went on to urge Marchionne to take action.

“Jeep got some bad marketing advice on this one, and I hope you will discontinue this commercial and its implication that it is fine to drive up the middle of an otherwise healthy creek.”